The Review 2009

38 The Review 2009 • Research Professor Helen F. Siu likes to go against the flow. The Yale University-based anthropologist, who is also the Honorary Director of HKU’s Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, took a year’s sabbatical to sharpen the development of the Institute. With everyone beating a path to China’s door, she and her colleagues at the Institute, which provides interdisciplinary research training on issues related to a connected Asia, have chosen to look outward at China’s relationships with South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and hopefully Africa. “South China and the Middle East, for example, share concerns about the cultural practices of family businesses, corporate governance, and the delicate balance between state and market. They also have historical linkages, which remain visible in the mosques, temples, street names, popular cultural customs, and business enterprises in our cities. China has also resumed its vital trading presence in the Gulf. Our research training clusters at the Institute will explore many of these issues,” said Professor Siu. “We are also interested in urbanisation, seeing that over half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. We are bringing together scholars to understand migration, public health, urban sustainability Examining China’s Place in the World and social conflict in Asia’s mega cities, starting with India-China comparisons. We would also like to encourage colleagues to examine the partnerships China has forged with African governments in the extraction industries and infrastructural developments. Social and cultural issues also urgently need attention.” The Institute was established in 2001 to focus on China and Inter- Asia studies. It has established institutionalised research partnerships with scholars from Hong Kong, China, Europe and North America to conduct research training on these issues, and to cross disciplinary boundaries. To foster the academic synergy and promote interdisciplinary research within the University, the University’s Centre of Asian Studies and the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences were put under one roof in 2009. “The University of Hong Kong is an ideal environment to nurture such flexible academic positioning. Hong Kong has relatively good infrastructure and public funding in education, although never enough. It maintains a transparent and vibrant civic culture, and its citizens look north and globally. And with many young scholars recently joining various faculties at the University, the energies created are exciting,” she said. “We are also interested in urbanisation, seeing that over half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas” 39 The Review 2009 • Research Professor Helen F. Siu